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Maintain up to date bootable backup

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I'm running True Image 2014.

I have a spare drive that I want to basically be a bootable clone of my system disk. At night, I'd like it to be updated with any changes. If my system disk dies, I should be able to point the BIOS to the backup drive and boot immediately. I shouldn't have to run a restore.

I know True Image can clone, but can it maintain a clone on a schedule, rather than creating the backup files it usually makes that have to be restored to some media before it can be used?

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Matthew Alpert wrote:

I know True Image can clone, but can it maintain a clone on a schedule, rather than creating the backup files it usually makes that have to be restored to some media before it can be used?

Matthew,

I don't believe ATI 2014 (or any version of ATI) can maintain a clone on a schedule.

That said, having a cloned drive, ready to takeover in the event of a disk crash, is a good idea.  However, having the cloned drive as your only backup is not a great idea.

In the configuration you describe, with the backup drive installed in the computer, your boot drive and your backup drive could be exposed to a malware attack, such as cryptowall. 

Personally, I have a cloned drive that I re-clone or restore with my latest backup every 2 to 4 weeks.  I also have a 2TB external HDD connected through USB2.  I do a daily scheduled backup to this HD using "disk mode".  The full system backup takes a long time, and I run that overnight.  The following incremental or differential backups only take a couple of minutes.  Grover has published some excellent custom backup schemes. I have found that a "Restore" of a "disk mode" backup is as easy as doing a clone.  A restore of a "Partition" backup can be a challenge.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

FtrPilot

 

Thanks, FtrPilot. I am actually doing incremental backups of all my drives with ATI. I'm just looking to get this additional bootable backup as well. If ATI can't do it, do you know of a tool that can? Preferebly one that can keep it up to date by synchronizing changes rather than doing a full backup each time. I.e., I just want a mirror.

Matthew,

I believe it is close to impossible to schedule a clone operation of your boot disk...To execute the clone, the computer has to boot from the Linux kernel.

You may want to investigate a hardware or software RAID setup.  Windows 7 and above have an imbedded capability.  Just do an internet search on Window Raid and/or Raid controller card.

WARNING...I have no experience with Raid and I am not making any recommendation, other than proceed with caution. 

Let me know how this works out.

Regards,

FtrPilot